Winning the West for Women
Jennifer Ross-Nazzal
In 1856, in an opera house in Roseville, Illinois, Susan B. Anthony called for the supporters of woman suffrage to stand. The only person to rise was eight-year-old Emma Smith. And she continued to take a stand for the rest of her life. As a leader in the suffrage movement, Emma Smith DeVoe stumped across the country organizing for the cause, raising money, and helping make the West central to achieving the vote for women.
DeVoe used her feminine style to great advantage in the campaign for the vote. Rather than promoting public rallies, she encouraged women to put their energies toward influencing the votes of their fathers, brothers, and husbands. Known as the still-hunt strategy, this approach was highly successful and helped win the vote for women in Washington State in 1910. Winning the West for Women demonstrates the importance of the West in the national suffrage movement. It reveals the central role played by the National Council of Women Voters, whose members were predominantly western women, in securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
Winning the West for Women also tells a larger story of dissension and discord within the suffrage movement. Though ladylike in her courtship of male support for the cause, DeVoe often clashed with other activists who disagreed with her tactics or doubted her commitment to the movement. This fascinating biography describes the real experiences of women and their relationships as they struggled to win the right to vote.
Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPLnFiZBHug
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About Jennifer Ross-Nazzal
Reviews for Winning the West for Women
Angela Firkus
North Dakota History
"The book provides vivid glimpses of America in its passage from the 19th into the 20th century. . . . We could use more voices like DeVoe's nowadays."
Judy Lightfoot
Crosscut
"This text does vital work in reclaiming the life of Emma Smith DeVoe, giving scholars deeper knowledge of the contradictions and complexities of the suffrage campaign."
Loretta Kensigner
Pacific Northwest Quarterly
"Ross-Nazzal argues convincingly that DeVoe made a vital contribution to the woman suffrage movement on both the state and national levels. While concentrating on DeVoe, this study reaffirms the important role western women played in the suffrage struggle."
Kathleen M. Green
The Annals of Iowa
"What makes DeVoe's story particularly fascinating is that suffrage leaders, including Susan B. Anthrony, disapproved of DeVoe's insistence on a more feminine approach. Ross-Nazzal correctly notes that not only were suffragists critical of DeVoe's strategy but historians have been as well."
Sunu Kodumthara
Montana The Magazine of Western History
"Ross-Nazzal brings the experiences of the movement to life. Her well-researched and closely chronicled account helps illuminate the significant role of women in the West and Midwest in attaining the vote for women."
Lisa R. Lindell
South Dakota History
"Ross-Nazzal's study helps us understand her difficult position—determined and resourceful but constrained by financial problems and prevailing gender norms—and appreciate the extent of her impressive accomplishments."
Rebecca Mead
Oregon Historical Quarterly
"Winning the West for Women is an intriguing study of the hard work, varying strategies and shifting alliances that were involved in securing the vote for women."
Barbara Lloyd McMichael
The Bellingham Herald
"Ross-Nazzal is right to suggest that Emma Smith DeVoe's important role in the women's suffrage struggles of the West has been overlooked and that western women did in fact play a crucial role in winning passage of the Nineteenth Amendment."
Jason McCollom
H-Net